Doing More By Doing Less

It’s awfully crowded in the digital marketing/social selling world. Getting “heard” is increasingly difficult. Getting into see/talk to customers is one of the top challenges I hear from executives, marketing and sales people alike.

To most, the solutions seem to be, “do more,” “be outrageous.”

As a result our emails are filled with “provocative/attention grabbing headlines,” that we just ignore and delete. Afterall, with all their marketing automation tools and content expertise, 79% of emails sent by professional marketers have no or limited targeting.

We are inundated with messages through every social channel. Content which was supposed to be a differentiator is becoming the new spam. Everyone is focused on building lists, building followers, building likes.

The volume (figuratively and literally) has become unmanageable—all in attempts to “be heard.”

Clearly these aren’t working. Marketer and sales people declare victory when a few percent “click through,” fill out a form and download a white paper. SDR’s sit on the edge of their seats, ready to call within a minute or two, saying, “I see you’re interested in our products……” (Actually I was interested in the white paper, which hasn’t even finished downloading.)

We revel in getting fractions of percentages of those people who actually have a need to buy, qualifying them and loading our pipelines.

Yes, the rest we’ll nurture with our weekly communications, figuring if they aren’t interested this week, they will be interested next week, or the next, or the next…

Marketers, needing to help fill the funnel, keep pumping of the volume, casting wider nets, doing more and more, while producing less and less.

All of a sudden, someone tells you, “Why don’t you focus on a small number? Why not focus on a handful, maybe 10, maybe 25?”

In our heads, we run the numbers…… 30% of 25 is 7.5 and only a few percent of those will be qualified……..

“This is crazy, we’ll never make our numbers!”

But then you listen further, “What if 100% of those prospects engaged you and had real needs to buy?”

Our immediate reactions are “What is this guy smoking????? You have to do the numbers, it’s all about volume!!”

Contact marketing is a very focused approach–focusing on a single person, or a small number of people. It’s about careful research, targeting, deep understanding of the challenges an individual faces, who they are as people, how to engage them. It’s about careful planning and attention to details in making that very first contact.

Moreover, it’s about people connecting with people, building enduring relationships. In contrast to the “Dear Occupant Or Current Resident” approach of most marketing programs, Stu suggests creativity, fun, being different–being human. He suggest dozens of different approaches, has stories from dozens more about things they’ve tried. He’s not suggesting the magic formula, the provocative subject line. He’s suggesting standing out, being relevant, timely, impactful, and different–each and every time.

What one person responds to is not what someone else responds to, so Stu suggests tailoring your approach to each individual.

The results are stunning. Yes it takes time, effort, and creativity. But run the numbers—how many emails, how many prospecting calls, how many follow ups do you have to do to get 25 new, qualified deals in your pipeline? What would happen if you had 100% hit rates on the 25 you focus on? (And the quality of these deals are likely to be higher).

“How To Get A Meeting With Anyone” doesn’t have the answers. But it’s filled with ideas, tips and approaches. It helps you think about what you might do to set yourself apart–yet produce better results.

We don’t need to do more, we don’t need to pump up the volume, we don’t need to be more outrageous to a wider group of people.

We have to focus on less–much less, but doing more, more impactfully with those few.

Dave has spent his career developing high performance organizations. He worked in sales, marketing, and executive management capacities with IBM, Tektronix and Keithley Instruments. His consulting clients include companies in the semiconductor, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, computer, telecommunications, retailing, internet, software, professional and financial services industries.

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